I highly recommend the A7(3dGameStudio) engine. it's really easy to use, targetted at beginners, and has vehicle physics.

jeffmorris
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2007-08-12T20:47:47Z —
#4

Blender has a confusing user interface and there's three versions of 3D Game Studio A7 engine. I think that vehicle physics is available in Pro version which costs \\$900. I think that I have A6 Commercial version. I don't know how to upgrade from A6 Commercial to A7 Pro.

phildart
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2007-10-15T00:43:35Z —
#5

try the ShiVa Game Development Kit,

it includes physics with ODE, so you will be free to create great car physics (realistic or cartoon) behaviour. and the price is quite low.

Perhaps it's just quite expert interface oriented... but there is some video tutorial to help you to take in hand.

On the Blender interface, it's not as hard as it looks at first. I use Blender and it seems so easy for me. It's free and constantly updated. It takes a little while to get used to anything but the forums are great for answering questions. The exports are getting better but the game engine is slow and outdated and buggy. Crystal Space has a special exporter for Blender and it's really looking nice lately. Check out the celstart binaries and the castle demo. Irrlicht has a nice world editor that does light maps and the engine is pretty easy to use. Stick with a free engine and you won't be constantly paying for updates every year.

Blender has a confusing user interface and there's three versions of 3D Game Studio A7 engine. I think that vehicle physics is available in Pro version which costs \\$900. I think that I have A6 Commercial version. I don't know how to upgrade from A6 Commercial to A7 Pro.

Vehicle physics is available in the free version of 3D Game Studio. I have just downloaded it and it works very well. Another option would be Torque, but the approach is more difficult.

phildart
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2007-11-10T17:03:46Z —
#19

just to inform that the ShiVa 1.5.2 is released.

the community is fastly growing up and the new features are really great. Ambient Occlusion, DirectX/openGL, web or installer publishing.

and the PLE is still completely free.

I'm still believing that is THE solution for indy developer as me!

TMichael
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2007-11-10T21:47:13Z —
#20

Shiva looks great, but the forums are almost entirely in French right now. Being unable to read the comments and concerns of current users has made me wary.